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All the United States South Dakota Wall Wall Drug

Wall Drug

The granddaddy of all tourist traps, built on ice water, jackalopes, and a giant dinosaur.

Wall, South Dakota

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  lendog666 / Atlas Obscura User
One of Wall Drug’s taxidermy Jackalopes   Maxually/Flickr
  Mandias/Flickr
  Mykl Roventine/Flickr
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/stinkypeter/1...
  Jkeiser
Perspective. An 80ft dino from I-90.  
Location on the Globe   kayakingdog / Atlas Obscura User
Wall Drug at Dusk   cb24602 / Atlas Obscura User
Free Ice Water Sign   cb24602 / Atlas Obscura User
Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota (United States).   Michael Barera / Atlas Obscura User
  breaingram / Atlas Obscura User
Animatronics in the shop   evilgreentriangle / Atlas Obscura User
Cowboy orchestra   evilgreentriangle / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
5-10-22   Darrell Powers / Atlas Obscura User
Wall 80ft Dinosour   Gavin / Atlas Obscura User
5-10-22   Darrell Powers / Atlas Obscura User
  lendog666 / Atlas Obscura User
Everyone needs to experience a signing & piano playing gorilla!   hopelalas / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Among roadside attractions, Wall Drug is an icon: the granddaddy of tourist traps.

South of the Border, The Thing?, the kitschy cosmopolis that sprouted around Niagara Falls: all of them owe a debt to Wall Drug. While the designation of "tourist trap" is certainly pejorative, the 80+-year-old Wall Drug wears the title proudly.

Wall Drug started simply enough when Ted Hustead purchased the South Dakota town of Wall's drugstore in 1931. But it was Ted's wife Dorothy who hit upon the idea that changed not just the drugstore, but the entire 231-person town of Wall. The idea: ice water.

Wall had always been a small outpost in the middle of nowhere, but by the time Wall Drug opened the town had just become somewhere -- or near somewhere at least. Sixty miles west of Wall, Mount Rushmore had just opened. So in an attempt to attract business, Dorothy Hustead put up a sign advertising free ice water to parched tourists on their way to the attraction. It was a big hit.

From then on Wall Drug grew under its own strange power, adding a bizarre assortment of fiberglass animals, including the iconic Wall Drug jackalope, giant dinosaurs, and more tchotchkes then you can shake a stick at, including an array of taxidermied jackalopes. (It is unclear when or why jackalopes attained such iconic status for Wall Drug).

Wall Drug now has billboards some 500 hundred miles away--and many thousands of miles further, if you count those put up by fans--announcing the impending tourist trap all the way in Minnesota to the East and Billings, Montana to the West. If you are a honeymooner, veteran, priest, hunter, or truck driver, you can also get free coffee and donuts.

They still give out ice water too. Some 20,000 cups of it a day.

Related Tags

Statues Shops Purveyors Of Curiosities Dinosaurs Roadside Attractions Taxidermy Animals

Community Contributors

Edited By

Leslie McIntyre, JonnyRaleigh, Molly McBride Jacobson, mbison...

  • Leslie McIntyre
  • JonnyRaleigh
  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • mbison
  • cb24602
  • hopelalas
  • kayakingdog
  • Collector of Experiences
  • breaingram
  • Gavin
  • Michael Barera
  • lendog666
  • evilgreentriangle
  • Darrell Powers
  • causeiwander

Published

August 21, 2009

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  • http://www.walldrug.com/default.aspx
Wall Drug
510 Main Street
Wall, South Dakota, 57790
United States
43.993266, -102.241773
Visit Website
Get Directions

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